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1. This article said the man was "fired". Actually he was an associate professor who was denied tenure, i.e. a substantial promotion. Lots of associate professors are denied tenure in every major university every year, and frequently there are cries of discrimination, favoritism, cronyism, etc.

2. In order to get tenure in a major university, a candidate should be distinguished in his or her field (being considered a great teacher is nice, but that and $2 gets a cup of coffee when it comes to tenure deci

1. You do realize that being denied tenure is closer to being fired at/before the end of a probationary period, not passed over for promotion from fry cook to shift manager? It is true that the ongoing trend toward permatemping higher education by stringing along assorted adjuncts and other cheap labor has eroded the traditional process a bit; but it is still generally the case that 'denied tenure' = 'pursuing opportunities elsewhere is exciting and mandatory!' rather than 'you will remain an associate professor'.

2."This guy seemed to be best known for his harsh criticism of the government of Singapore... which the university depends on in many ways! Yeah, that sounds likely that they would want that guy on board." If the state of Singapore is serious about 'academic independence', then sometimes they end up cutting checks to people who say mean things about them. It's the quieter and more bookish version of not having the majority party send the minority party to the firing squad. It's a neat concept. If they aren't up to that, well, their 'universities' are pretty much stuck being fancy vocational schools and nothing more.

MIT gets hundreds of millions from the federal government in research grants and tuition aid. Yet, Chomsky is still there freely criticizing everything he sees fit for criticism.

I hope Slashdotters will take up this "immediately deflect to another country" tactic for everything else in the future. For example, when US corporations are fairly criticized, we get inundated with replies of "Well, it's not like Chinese companies are any better"

Well for better or for worse being denied tenure IS like being fired. I mean while you're not technically fired simply because you are denied tenure, it's basically a message to get out. The only professors you generally see stay around that are not tenured, are ones that are nontenure track. Some positions, like research assistant professors, are not tenure-track. No matter how long they work, tenure is not something they will receive. However in a tenure-track position, being denied tenure is more or less

I read the linked articles and I see that Freedom House, an NGO, says that Singapore has the same rating for political and civil freedom as Nigeria. The Economist compares the democracy in Singapore with that of Liberia. So that does beg the question... what genius sat down and said "this would be a great place to put a new campus for Yale!"

'Freedom' talks, money walks. It's pretty similar to the (on the whole practically hagiographic) coverage that Dubai gets. If the GDP per-capita is high enough and most of the violence is reserved for locals who get mouthy, rather than expats who don't give a fuck because they can always just fly home, you can have pretty much any western investors, corporate branch offices, or prestige institutions you are willing to buy.

If you have the sort of unfreedom that is bad for property values(like Nigeria), then you can still get extraction industries and CIA agents; but probably not a Yale branch campus...

As with most words, the etymology is a pretty sketchy guide to the definition. Not unrelated; but words pick up(and lose) a lot of baggage over time.

In this case 'hagiography' is the genre of writings about saints and miracles and holy places and whatnot. It also tends to carry the perjorative assertion that the writing in question is somewhere between excessively uncritical and overtly fawning in its treatment of the subject. Would there be other ways to convey the same point? Sure. Does that particular wo

Fair enough. I usually think of computer software as being a 'mathematical context'; but I suppose that it has such an enormous applied/engineering side at this point that it would be far from obvious that I meant to include software people in saying that.

I read the linked articles and I see that Freedom House, an NGO, says that Singapore has the same rating for political and civil freedom as Nigeria. The Economist compares the democracy in Singapore with that of Liberia. So that does beg the question... what genius sat down and said "this would be a great place to put a new campus for Yale!"

I think it's fair to say that Yale's research lead on that project, Charles Morgan III, may not be what we call a 'quick study' or a 'good learner from experience'...

His research specialty is stress and PTSD, so he has worked with the SERE program for quite a while. Back in 2007 [nytimes.com] he was oh-so-horribly-shocked to discover that we were using methods we had previously associated with the forces of commie aggression. Now, in 2013, he is seeking “someone they can’t necessarily identify with” in

Singapore is a remnant from the time when Western countries would support any regime, provided it would not align with the USSR. There is no freedom of press, no freedom of association in Singapore. All depends of the good will of the prime minister. But since 1959, only two different prime ministers have ever been elected, and the second one is the son of the first one.

There are elections with opposing candidates, but it's also the case in Russia nowadays. As almost all media belong to the government or the prime minister's family. The election system is over-complicated to engineer a very predictable result. While a large portion of the housing is public housing, the government makes threats to remove state funding in constituencies that do note vote for the ruling party. It is said that there is no 'perception' of corruption in Singapore. On the individual level, it might be true, with upstanding public officers. But much of the country's economy is under the control of Temasek holdings, which belongs to the state, and is a pretty opaque company.

In the end you should not expect freedom if you go to work and live as an expatriate researcher in Singapore. Money, for sure. But as you're getting this money, you also are a pawn of the state to further its control of the population, and help launder the money hidden in the city by corrupt officials throughout Asia.

Woah.. lets not go on to full Singapore bashing mode.. the country (city-state) has achieved some incredible things.. not least of which is continued economic prosperity amidst the carnarge, as well as an incredibly safe, stable and clean living habitat for the populace. Ofcourse there are gripes, freedom of speech does not stand up to the western definition of it..but atleast they are pretty honest about it.
The city and its government has punched far above its weight. I think it would only be fair to an

Singapore is what is called "guided democracy(GD)". A simple way of effectively saying "do it my way or the highway". However this guided democracy has achieved enormous success and results for the last few decades taking a tiny country and putting it at the forefront of Asia as a pro business centre. It is highly likely that without being a GD then we would be looking at a very different and MUCH poorer country right now. Singapore has no mineral or natural wealth to fall back on, so was their approach wro